She Wouldn't Leave Him For Coffee
by Sullen Kitty
Summary: Oneshot. Sequel to “Have Some Milk With Your Memories”. Bobby dissects his relationship with Alex. More playful coffee banter ensues. XD


Title: Holding A Candle

Title: She Wouldn't Leave Him For Coffee

Summary: Oneshot. Sequel to "Have Some Milk With Your Memories". Bobby dissects his relationship with Alex. More playful coffee banter ensues. XD

Disclaimer: I don't own LOCI or Starbucks. But I'd love to.

A/N: Haha. I just had to do a sequel. "Have Some Milk With Your Memories" was too cute to be Alex's alone, so Bobby got his say too.

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Bobby shook his head when he hung up with Alex. She'd just interviewed the star witness at his home and thought there might be something fishy with his story. Also, did he want her to pick up anything for him at the Starbucks around the corner while she was getting coffee?

It was, unfortunately, very sweet how she worried about him. Making sure he was okay whenever anything bad happened, attempting to erase even the slightest discomforts in his hectic life.

Where the 'unfortunate' bit came in is where her kindness fueled Bobby's boylike crush on her.

He actually found it quite interesting, not to mention pathetic of him. He thought he might be emotionally stunted from taking care of his mother and making Frank didn't OD. That was a possibility.

He annoyed himself when he found himself dissecting their conversations. He did that to just about everyone, come to think of it, but with Alex it was different. "Did she mean something different when she said insert phrase here?" How sad.

Besides, she was a widow. 'Mrs. Eames.' He laughed at himself. He never, ever thought of her that way. In her eyes, Bobby doubted he could ever hold a candle to Joe.

He did his best to depersonalize her, calling her 'Eames', never 'Alex'. Alex was only in his head; Eames was in the real world, where work-home relationships were severely frowned upon and she still mourned for her husband.

He did his best to date. But whenever he looked at a woman, his thoughts always followed the same pattern. Why was her hair up? Why didn't she tilt her head slightly, like she was trying to gauge his reaction, when she asked about his family? He'd actually caught himself on his last date saying, "I thought you knew that!" in surprise when the poor woman had asked him something about his favorite Chinese takeout place. He'd managed to pawn it off as some sort of joke, but that was the last time he'd seen her.

None of his dates had ever become anything more than just that – a date.

Oh, jeez, Bobby thought, kneading his forehead and taking the last sip of his still-scalding coffee. I'm not emotionally stunted because of my family. I'm emotionally stunted because of _Alex._

That actually made more sense – in an extremely sorry, pitiable kind of way.

A small hand waved in front of his face. "Earth to Bobby Goren. Spaced much?"

Bobby looked up, jolted from his thoughts. There stood Eames, holding out a coffee to him. He waved it away. "You know I don't drink anything from Starbucks."

"That's why it doesn't have the logo, dummy, I got it from the guy outside for you. Non-corporate coffee, just the way you like it."

Bobby grinned and motioned to his empty cup. "You're just in time – I just finished my fourth," he said, accepting the new cup from her.

Alex raised her eyebrows as she put her own coffee on the desk and shrugged out of her coat. "Good thing I got you decaf, then. Otherwise you'd be shaking."

"Eames! How am I going to stay focused with decaf coffee?" he complained.

"The same way you do with four cups of caff already in your system," she said, pursing her lips as she sat at her desk. "_I,_ on the other hand, can enjoy this lovely Starbucks roast…"

"…that cost three times as much as my coffee did," Bobby finished, smirking as she took a sip.

"At ten times the taste," Alex added as Bobby drank his own. "You don't know what you're missing out on with this Pike's Place roast."

"I don't _want_ to know," Bobby said primly. "I'm just fine buying my coffee from the vendor outside. As I've said so many times before, Eames, _my_ coffee does not put people out of work."

"Mm," she replied noncommittally, drinking. Then, "So?"

"So what?"

"When we end up building in outer space, how do you propose to find non-corporate coffee out there?"

Bobby frowned. "That could be a problem," he mused, stroking his chin. "I guess I'll just have to stay here."

"Psh. Just you, then. I'm going to Starbucks heaven!" Alex laughed.

"You have fun with that." Bobby looked slightly sulky. He did not like jokes about Alex leaving.

Alex grinned. "Nah. Don't worry, I'm not gonna go to Planet Starbucks." She spread her hands. "I live there."

Bobby laughed, assuaged, and also mentally smacking himself about how ludicrous it was that he could be upset at the thought of Alex leaving the _planet_, for Christ's sake! Besides, she wouldn't leave him for coffee.

Alex smiled and propped her head up on her hands, staring at him. "Okay. Back to the case. What do you think of Harry's denial of ever seeing the file? That's a little fishy to me."

"Me too…"

Drinking their coffee together was undoubtedly the highlight of their day.

-Fin-

A/N:


End file.
